Product Description

A mysterious power outage causes Moses Hughes's small plane to crash near Leora Ebersole's Old Order Mennonite town---and cuts the electricity at the country store, leaving Englishers stranded because of dead car batteries. Now the pacifist community must partner with the outsiders to survive. But can Leora's family and neighbors protect their lifestyle from English influence?

Publisher's Description

When Leora Ebersole sees the small plane crash in her Old Order Mennonite community, she has no idea its a foreshadowing of things to come. When the young pilot, Moses Hughes, regains consciousness, they realize his instruments were destroyed by the same power outage that killed the electricity at the community store, where Englischers are stranded with dead cell phones and cars that wont start.

Moses offers a sobering theory, but no one can know how drastically life is about to change. With the only self-sustaining food supply in the region, the Pacifist community is forced to forge an alliance with the handful of stranded Englischers in an effort to protect not only the food but their very lives.

In the weeks that follow, Leora, Moses, and the community will be tested as never before, requiring them to make decisions they never thought possible. Whom will they help and whom will they turn away? When the community receives news of a new threat, everyone must decide how far theyre willing to go to protect their beliefs and way of life.

Editorial Reviews

Midwestern author Jolina Petersheim looks at what happens when the outside world begins to besiege an Old Order Mennonite community after a national emergency takes America off the power grid and everyone must decide how far they are willing to go to protect their beliefs and their way of life.

The Alliance is an engaging, thought-provoking novel! Jolina Petersheim deftly portrays her characters and their emotions, beckoning readers into the harsh new reality of their world. Dramatic and suspenseful, I loved experiencing the reactions of this Old Order Mennonite community and look forward to continuing their story!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. No review was required, and all thoughts expressed are my own.

Jolina Petersheim presents an idea that is beginning to garner attention in her book, The Alliance. Could an electromagnetic shock wipe out all electricity and bring the world as we know it, to a halt? What sets Petersheim's book apart is that Englischers and Mennonites must combine forces in order to survive the coming depravity.

Filled with faith, doubt, loss, love, greed, and selflessness, I found this to be an engrossing story. What happened to Leora's father? to her sister? Which suitor will Leora choose? As Leora questions her theology versus her practical, pushed-to-the-edge attitudes and actions, I found myself soul-searching with her.

As I read the prelude for the sequel, I am just as anxious to find out how Petersheim gets her well-developed characters from point A to point B(hopefully where I want them to go).

Definitely worth the read. Petersheim's compelling prose thrusts the reader into a nightmare where survival is not guaranteed. You may be reevaluating the distance between black and white when you finish the story.

I gratefully received a copy of this book from the author and bookfun.org in exchange for an honest review.

Let me start by saying the sequel will be released spring of 2017 titled, The Divide. When the area where Leora lives is interrupted by a plane crash, readers will see that is just the beginning! What follows is tale of two vastly different cultures coming together in order to survive what is assumed to be an EMP attack that renders all electronic gadgets useless. While this tends not to bother the Old Order Mennonite Community, it does disrupt the Englishers lifestyle greatly!

The pilot of the plane that crashed is sharing his ideas on how they can come together to share or pool their resources for survival. No one knows for sure what has occurred or the lasting effects, but they know if they dont do something, starvation will soon encroach up the community. The elders quickly decide to form an alliance with the outsiders, leaving the protection detail to the Englishers and other chores to the Mennonites.

At first, I thought I wouldnt enjoy this type of novel, but there is where I was wrong! I found it a riveting and suspense-filled story along with two men vying for Leoras attention. Even Leora isnt sure who her heart is drawn more toward and her beliefs might be shifting due to the total change to their way of life.

While this is a totally different genre for me, the author did a great job of weaving an engaging tale where the characters are the focus. The Mennonites are challenged in their beliefs and lifestyle while the Englishers dont want to step on toes of the Mennonites and are trying to point out the danger the community now faces. The tension at times is palpable and kept me turning pages for hours until I finished. So, if you at one time were like me and bypassed a book thinking you wouldnt like it, perhaps now you will pick up the book and enjoy!

This is an introspective, multi-cultural, apocalyptic novel. This author knows how to capture your attention immediately and you know they are an amazing author because they keep you there. You read the story and you are wondering the whole way through as to what is going to happen? You have NO idea what is going to happen and that is another sign of an amazing author. It is a story of a girl from a Mennonite community finding a man who was in a downed plane - bringing doom and gloom about how eventually their lives are going to be destroyed - I am not going to tell you how or what because that would ruin the whole book for you, but this is an incredible story and I promise you will NOT regret getting this book - you I are mesmerized until the very last page. I received this book to read and give an honest review

Alliance by Jolina Petersheim is a wonderful read! It has a little romance and suspense added in. It also had a twist that I never expected.

This story starts out with Leora Ebersole seeing a plane crash in her Mennonite community. When the pilot, Moses Hughes, finally regains consciousness, the Mennonite village figure out that the same power outage that destroyed his instruments in the plane also killed the electricity at the community store. Moses is trying to help the community, but they clash some on their ideas and his. They are all trying to survive, and they must work together to achieve this.

This was the first book Ive read by Jolina Petersheim. She is a very talented author. I was hooked from the first page! I definitely recommend this book.

Author/Artist Review

Tell us a little about yourself. Last November, my husband and I and our two young daughters moved from Tennessee--my home for twenty-six years--to the Driftless Region of Wisconsin, where we are currently attempting to homestead on our grid-tie solar-powered farm. Though our Amish and Mennonite backgrounds should provide a smooth transition to the simple life, this past year has stretched us in so many ways, culminating in my third novel, The Alliance, releasing this June through Tyndale House, which I believe is my most important project to date.

Part St. John Mandel's Station Eleven with the communal quandaries presented in Lois Lowry's work, The Alliance has forced me to come to terms with my pacifist background and ask myself what lengths I would go to protect my daughters, even if that meant extinguishing a life.

What was your motivation behind this project? When my eldest daughter was six months old, an unnerving exchange with a logger caused me to ask myself whether I would ever use lethal force to protect myself and my family. I believed I would, even though, growing up, I sensed that my own father would adhere to his pacifist heritage if placed in such a situation.
The final puzzle piece for my book, The Alliance, slid into place when my father told us that we needed heirloom seeds to last us until the next harvest season. I remember standing in my darkened kitchen and repeating that phrase to myselfThe Harvest Season.
Initially, I believed this would be the title of the book, but over time, I knew a community having enough food to last until the next harvest season was only a small element of the story. The larger element came from the protagonist, Leora Ebersoles driving need to control her environment, even after society crumbles around her, because if she controls her environment, she believes she will be able to keep her orphaned family safe.

What do you hope folks will gain from this project? I pray that my readers will discover the Author of the peace that passes all understanding and daily surrender their livesand the lives of their familiesto Him.

How were you personally impacted by working on this project? With every one of my books, Gods been faithful to allow me to experience some portion of whatever topic Im addressing. The Alliance is no exception. My family and I moved from Tennessee to Wisconsin shortly before I finished the rough draft. Eight weeks later, my husband went in for a CAT scan, which revealed a tumor near his brain stem. He had surgery the next morning, and all through that night next to his hospital bed, I feared for my family.
I feared for our two young daughterstwo-and-a-half and four months at the time. I feared that I would be a widow, living on a farm six-hundred miles away from our immediate families. In a matter of hours, one of my worst fears had come true, and I didnt know how to handle it.
However, all through my Garden of Gethsemane night, during the hours my husband was in surgery, and the critical weeks that followed the craniotomy, I felt Gods presence as if he was sitting beside me. I then understood that God had allowed me to face one of my greatest fears so that I would learn that inner peace can never be acquired through my futile attempts to control my environmentand therefore keep my family safe. Moreover, I can only achieve inner peace if I continually surrender my life and the lives of my family to the One who called us into being.